An incomplete life

A person who knows her work to be done. But what if the available time does not let her finish the job along with others that need to be done.

A way to balance will and responsibility.

Utility & futility

When we think about a thing, if we were to write of it, we first think what it does.

A good ad

At the mail box, was a sheet with things on sale, probably by a person moving. It was in a row column format of pictures of inline roller skates, gas cooker, blinds, printer, vacuum cleaner and others, mentioning their condition and price. When I went in the evening, I think it wasn’t there.

Former poet

While reading Indiana Review Volume 18, Number 1 (Spirituality & American writing), I came across Neal Bower’s ‘Faith at the turn of the century’. I didn’t get the poem but was interested in reading other poems of his. A look at his profile revealed that he calls himself a former poet.
Neal Bowers
what happens to a former poet when he next sees his muse again?

Boxed letters

1. Write a poem from the words in a crossword

2. Write a poem from the letters on a scrabble board

3. Write clues for words in a crossword or a scrabble game

Joy of poetry in everyday life

Most of Jane Shore's poems in That said appeal with their non-jarring shock value of their novelty in terms of subject matter.
Her three line stanza, short line poems almost never work.
In `The Russian doll' title lent to cover photo poem, we see amorphous thoughts put into words snug just like doll inside a doll.
In `Tender acre', by using the word `bargello' for the patterns on a snake, she is the poet whose eternal task is to get the right word for a thing.
There are vague references to fairy tales and folk tales in some of her poems.But fairy tales make a direct reference in a poem where the poet plays out all the stories with her daughter. I like the series of poems in which she writes about her daughter. Especially in `the sound of sense', recognizing her daughter's learning to read as the sounding of various meter elements again shows her poet eye/ear.
From here on, the poems star her family members. Within the everydayness of the poems are experiences which the readers can relate to in different stages of life. Sometimes the endings - like one of her toy going mute while she grows up finding her voice - offer boomerang twists to the poem.
There are many things a beginner poet can learn from these poems. Her expression of a feeling in an anti-feeling holds the tension of the conflict on the page. In 'sh-t soup' poem the metaphors are not just limited to linking two words but the whole poem - recipe of a dish to that of a life.
when she writes 'A voice called out "This is your room.This is your bed"' in 'dream city' poem, I feel pushed to find out the voice of every inanimate thing, not an inanimate voice but lively with inflection.
In one of the poems she describes fortune cookies as lips with the white paper as a tongue. This reminded of the 'oracle'. Such coincidental extensions leave the readers with possibilities of extending every metaphor they meet.

The Manual of painting and calligraphy

Jose Saramago's interview

I chose something else over Lower River. This TNY excerpt should give me an idea if I did right.
Interesting book site and another

Writing discipline

Adair Lara writes that David Lehman wrote a poem a day and Khaled Hosseini of 'The Kite Runner' wrote everyday at 5 in the morning while finding time to be a physician.

Simpler than OJ

Unbinding the heart

In the book, the author explains the difference between a maze and a labyrinth. Her life and her search for self and meaning traces the path of a labyrinth with the center being her home. If you are the kind of reader who likes stories where the characters meet dead ends and still find the way out of a maze, then this book is not for you. Its not the adversity that fuels the author but the tenets of life passed on to her by her mother.

OR

In the preface of 'Unbinding the Heart', author Agapi Stassinopoulos uses the word 'synchronicity' many times. You begin to wonder about the meaning. Once you are informed of the originator of the term - Carl Jung and its relation with 'meaning', you can see the importance of meaning and its search in the author's life.
The book is written in independent chapters. Thats good as well as bad when some major events are repeated more than thrice (even if just a mention). Write to me if the age at which her parents got seperated doesnt get tattooed in your brain.
I picked the book for 'fearless living' in the description of the book. I want to know what other futures can we dream of if we dont limit ourselves even if that contains a huge monster from mars chasing us.
The book is very simple. There is no huge concept or sequence of things to be done. As I kept reading I wondered if its the same person all through. There's this image you have of the autor for whom things are falling in place even if after a great amount of persistence and then there's the ascetic side of forwarding her spirituality. But it is in this duality that she made her life path happen.
The author's mother has been a big influence on her philosophy of life. With that foundation, she was confident to find her own path. The author's wisdom lies in being a part of her friends experiences and learning from them.
Most books start with why they were written but this book ends with the moment the author found her reason. To share that 'our true home is inside ourselves'.

When spring came, the enormous old weeping cherry outside my dorm bloomed as though it had invented the word. - Frances Mayes, The Discovery of poetry

When writers write about their feelings, some can hook the reader like a magnet.

Jelly greeting and a poem

Happy Birthday jelly in You're

Bird Tree

A bird with
its feathers
as leaves

feeding her
young

on the
stump of a
tree

Ted kooser on metaphor

an interview

pg 11 has Abandoned Farmhouse poem by Ted Kooser and the poem that influenced him - The Listeners 

Walter de la Mare 1912

Scented pencil box

Reading of Baby Scentsations in parenting magazine, I am reminded of a green pencil box which was scented. I got it as a gift for an essay on United nations.

Poetic exercises

Write a syllabic poem. This is from Ted Kooser's 'The Poetry Home Repair Manual'. ted Kooser writes that Frost's Stopping by woods on a snowy evening is written in a form. In the article Mark Richardson defines 'what a poem describes—its content; what it has in mind—its theme; and how it holds together—its form.'

Another:
Write a paragraph about a poem you have written, to an editor. In the explanation I have found a good ending to an incomplete poem.

Weather

We see 28C on
the thermometer magnet
Dad says its cooler
than that
Maybe its not working
We check later
Its 15C

Its working

Its funny that its
on the refrigerator
whose insides are lot lower
than the room temperature
that the magnet shows.

Exercise: Write a poem on any instrument that fascinated you as a child - stethescope, weighing machine, compass, windvane, any others? On your coveted posession.

Tot poetry on the rise

poetry for kids
More

A dream visit to the pediatrecian

There are a few
experiments on the wall
written here and there

There are many people
around like its a
fast food joint
-hard to find all the
to -dos

You jot down the baby's
reactions from each of
the exercises

when its your turn
the doctor interprets
the results

Why is it so
complicated?

**********************

Must have been the result of a disney theme memory book uptil five year age for the baby, which had a column for baby's reaction to each of the vaccinations.